I was accused of a crime but found not guilty – can I remove newspaper reports?

Many of the clients who we assist with the right to be forgotten, have been involved in criminal proceedings at some point in their lives.

In some cases, those clients will have been tried and found guilty, but in others, no further action will have been taken, or they will have been found not guilty, and for those individuals it is particularly difficult if newspaper reports still appear online, which refer to them being accused of a crime they were later acquitted of.

In these circumstances, it can be very damaging to an individual (for example if prospective employers carry out a search of their name), if there is information available online relating to criminal charges which were brought against them, even if they were ultimately found not guilty. If you find yourself in this situation, we may well be able to assist.

We will be able to submit an application to Google or the other search engines on your behalf, putting forward your case that it is inappropriate for the unwanted information, usually consisting of local news reports, to remain online when you have never been found guilty of any crime, or were never charged. In our experience, these applications are usually very effective, with a fairly high success rate.

If you have been accused of a crime, but found not guilty, or if the police took no further action, we may well be able to assist you removing any unwanted information from the internet. You can have a free, no obligation discussion with a qualified solicitor about how we can help. We will talk to you about the process of making an application to Google for the right to be forgotten, and confirm the information that we need from you.

Once we have all of the information and we have agreed a fixed fee with you, we will be able to draft the application and submit it to the search engine within a matter of days. Google can sometimes respond very quickly (also within a matter of days) but in some cases it can take a little longer, and in some cases, the search engine will ask for further information to help them decide whether to remove the information from a search of your name.

If you would like to remove newspaper reports about a crime you have been accused of, get in contact with us today to find out how we can help.